Protect all family devices with one ESET HOME subscription

Parents' laptop, the kids' phone, your partner's Mac: how to share one ESET HOME Security subscription across the family and manage it from one account.

Buying a separate antivirus for each device in the family is inconvenient and costs more. An ESET HOME Security subscription is made for the home: one licence for several devices on different platforms, and one account that shows what's protected and what isn't. Here's how to set it up.

Step 1. Choose the number of devices with some to spare

Count every device with banking, email or social media: laptops, the home PC, Android phones, Macs. An Essential or Premium subscription is bought for the number of devices you need, and you can split them however you like between Windows, macOS and Android. Add one or two spare seats for a new phone or laptop during the year.

Step 2. One account “owner”

Create an ESET HOME account with an email you always have access to, and add the subscription with the key from your email. This account becomes the control centre for the whole family: terms, devices, downloads.

ESET HOME used to have a “Share subscription” feature for other accounts, but ESET removed it. Now all the family's devices are connected from the subscription owner's account, as described below.

Step 3. Connect each device

1. In your ESET HOME account, click “Protect device” and choose the platform.
2. Download the installer on the current device or send a link to another one — for example, your child's phone.
3. Install ESET and, if the program asks, sign in to the owner's account or enter the key.
4. The device appears in the list, and you can see there whether its protection is in order.

Step 4. Set up parental control

Parental control is included in both ESET HOME Security plans. On a child's device it lets you restrict website categories and control app use. Set it up in the ESET program on the child's own device, under their user account.

Step 5. Turn on Anti-Theft on laptops and phones

Anti-Theft helps you find a lost or stolen device: it shows its location, lets you mark the device as missing and take photos with the camera. Turn it on in your ESET HOME account for each laptop and phone in advance — after it's lost it's too late.

How to keep track of everything in one place

The ESET HOME account is available on the web and in the Android and iOS app. There you can see:

• all the family's subscriptions and expiry dates;
• all devices and their protection status;
• devices that haven't checked in for a long time and may no longer be in use.

It's worth disconnecting an outdated device (an old phone, a sold laptop) from the subscription to free a seat for a new one. How to do it is described in the article on moving ESET to another device.

Renewal for the whole family

All the devices run on one key, so you renew one subscription, not each device separately. Renew with the owner's key and email on the renewal page, and the new term applies to all devices automatically.